AUSTRALIA
ABC News
By Emma Younger
The Anglican Church in Victoria will soon become a company to allow any future child sexual abuse victims to sue for damages.
All five of the church’s Victorian dioceses voted to incorporate following a recommendation by the 2013 Victorian parliamentary inquiry into child sex abuse.
It ends the legal debate about whether the church can be sued by creating a legal entity accountable for children in its care.
The nation’s top Anglican and Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, said it was part of an effort to modernise the church’s governance.
“I would hope that people who are survivors of child sexual abuse will take some heart out of the willingness that we have to set up this more accountable and transparent means,” he said.
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